The writing world is a-buzz of late with the story about James Frey’s “new” marketing idea to rope writers into a contractual arrangement that makes indentured servitude look like an intern program over a summer between semesters. The fact that some writers have actually signed these contracts is both telling and sad. John Scalzi, over on Whatever, made the (radical!) suggestion that MFA programs (because the lion’s share of these hapless dupes come directly from them) teach a semester in the business of writing for part of the egregious sums colleges and universities charge for degrees. This is a sensible suggestion. …
Category: Science Fiction
On The Road Part Two
A quick follow-up to my abbreviated MadCon report just past. Harlan Ellison arrived at the hotel Thursday evening, around eight o’clock. Only a few of us were in the lobby. Allen Steele, Peter David, Donna, and myself. Peter David’s wife Kathleen and their daughter (who Harlan “terrorized” to our surprise and her later delight). From that point on it became a really good experience. All the rumors that had been floating around about Harlan’s imminent demise proved exaggerated. Though he didn’t look his best—clearly he has been ailing—and he arrived wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms (Pierre Cardin, as he repeatedly joked, since he wore them all weekend), as the weekend progressed he came more and more alive.…
Home Again
We are returned from the wilds of Wisconsin.
In the last post I mentioned we were attending MadCon 2010 in Madison, touted as the last convention Harlan Ellison will ever do. Much speculation runs rampant over the internet about this and his own presentations at the convention will doubtless throw gasoline on the inferno. Having spent more than a small amount of time in his company this past weekend, I will report only that the rumors are pretty much exactly that. Those who know him, know what’s more or less going on, and those who don’t, unless they were present at MadCon and heard what he had to say, do not know what is going on, and after a few conversations with the man I will not post about it here.…
On The Road
Tomorrow morning, probably before the sun is up, we will be on the road to Madison, Wisconsin. We’re going to attend a little convention called MadCon 2010. When you click on the link you will see a note explaining that the guest of honor, Harlan Ellison, will not, due to illness, make it. Well, that’s changed, apparently. Harlan says he is feeling up to it and will be getting on a plane tomorrow and will appear.
Last time we saw Harlan was in 1999, at a convention called Readercon (which is a genuinely spiffy excellent convention because it is ALL ABOUT BOOKS—no movies, no anime, no costumes, none of that, just BOOKS) and he was in great form and we had a marvelous time.…
Robert A. Heinlein: Grand Master
I finished reading William H. Patterson’s large new biography of Robert A. Heinlein yesterday. I knew I wanted to write something about it, but I gave it a day to simmer. Frankly, I’m still not sure what to say other than I was positively impressed.
Basically, Patterson achieved the remarkable goal of demythologizing the man without gutting him.
I’ve read any number of biographies of famous (and infamous) personalities which tended either to be hagiographic (and therefore virtually useless as any kind of honest reference) or a brutal airing of personal failings in some sort of attempt to drag the subject down to “our level” and resulting in a catalogue of reasons to think ill of the person under study. …
Ideas and Execution
A few weeks ago I read a really terrific story by Adam-Troy Castro, called Arvies. Check it out, it is, as they say, killer.
Last weekend I went to ConText, as I reported. Usually when I come home from a convention I’m energized, can’t wait to get to the computer and write something. Not this time. I was unusually enervated. Maybe I have too much on my mind.
Maybe.
Last night, though, a story idea popped into my head from something Donna said and I have written the first few paragraphs. I look at it and see that it is inspired in part by Adam’s story. …
Conventioning
In a couple of days I’ll be heading for Columbus, to attend ConText. My first time at this convention and it’s long overdue. I should have gone years ago. I attended another convention in Columbus once, at the suggestion of my then-publisher who had been invited as a publisher GoH. When we got there we realized that it was the wrong con for a book release party, which was what he had in mind. It was almost entirely a media con.
Leafing through the program book I came across an ad for ConText, with the tagline:
“The convention for those of us who actually read the stuff.”…
New Fiction
I’ve been working this past few months on short fiction. You wouldn’t think this would be such a hard thing to do, given my rate of production in the last ten years (almost fifteen novels, scores of book reviews, a few assorted nonfiction pieces, and all the blog entries, both here and on Dangerous Intersection), but short fiction is peculiar. Hell, anything is peculiar. If you’re used to writing one form, switching to another can be very difficult. There are some writers, I know (and some I know) who have no trouble moving between forms, but for whatever reason I do.…
A Moment of Celebrity Type Stuff
A friend of mine, the estimable Erich Veith, came by my home a bit over a year ago and we recorded a long interview. Erich has finally gotten around to editing it and has begun posting segments on YouTube. Here’s the first one. (I still haven’t figured out how to embed videos here, so bear with me.)
Erich runs the website Dangerous Intersection, where I post opinionated blatherings from time to time and Erich graciously allows me to hold forth in my own idiosyncratic manner. Why he thought people would also enjoy watching and hearing me as well, I can’t say, but I enjoyed the process and from the looks of the first three (which are up at Dangerous Intersection) I don’t think I came off too badly.…
James Hogan, Troubled In His Stars
James P. Hogan had died.
He wrote science fiction. The books I read, over 20 years ago, were generally pretty good. He has the distinction for me of having written one of my favorite debut novels, Inherit the Stars. It was a murder mystery, a science mystery, a space adventure, and a thorough-going exposition on forensics of all sorts, including, in the end, “evolutionary” forensics (if such a thing exists).
There is profound irony in that. The plot hinges around a spacesuited corpse found on the moon at a time when it shouldn’t have been there. The story is the series of investigations finding out where it came from. …